Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo: new EV estate hits the 'Ring

Engineering of Porsche’s second dedicated electric model, the Taycan Cross Turismo, has begun in earnest, with prototypes of the new high-riding estate seen undergoing high-speed testing at the Nürburgring.

Despite the prototype pictured here being disguised, it appears both the Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo will share their front-end appearance through to the trailing edge of the front doors. From there on back, however, the Taycan Cross Turismo receives its own unique styling, as with the Panamera and Panamera Sport Turismo.

Among the styling elements differentiating the Taycan Cross Turismo from the four-door Taycan are a longer roof and a steeper-angled tailgate – both aimed at providing it with added practicality and greater load space. Also evident is the added ground clearance of the concept, intended to provide the car with moderate off-road ability in combination with four-wheel drive.

Like the standard Taycan, which is planned to go into production later this year, the Taycan Cross Turismo is planned to offer at least three different outputs and the choice of rear or four-wheel drive.

Porsche is remaining tight-lipped on exact power output, but chairman Oliver Blume has confirmed the initial saloon will receive “more than 600bhp” from two electric motors – one powering the front wheels and the other the rears.

A less powerful version with a single, circa-450bhp electric motor and rear-wheel drive is rumoured to be under development, but it's unlikely to be launched before the end of 2020, according to Porsche sources.

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In range-topping guise, the Taycan Cross Turismo is expected to match the Mission E Cross Turismo concept’s claimed 0-62mph time of “less than 3.5sec” and 0-124mph time of “under 12.0sec”.

One factor Porsche is pushing heavily in the lead-up to the launch of the Taycan is its ability to provide what is described as reproducible performance.

“Drivers won’t need to worry about throttling performance,” said Taycan lead engineer Stefan Weckbach. "It will offer reproducible performance and a top speed that can be maintained for long periods.”

Electrical energy used to run the motors is stored in a lithium ion battery pack that uses cells supplied by South Korean company LG. The capacity of the unit is yet to be revealed, but Porsche is sticking to earlier claims that it will provide the Taycan with a range of up to 311 miles.

In an industry first, Porsche’s Tesla Model S rival has been engineered to support an 800V charging system. An 80% recharge is therefore claimed to be possible in “less than 15 minutes”.

As with the Taycan saloon, the estate is planned to be produced on a dedicated line being built at Porsche’s headquarters in Zuffenhausen, on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Germany.

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